1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to medical image processing, and more particularly, to a system and method for grouping airways and arteries for quantitative analysis.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Bronchiectasis is a disorder that damages and weakens bronchial walls causing the bronchial airways to become permanently enlarged. Bronchiectasis manifests itself through changes in bronchial and arterial diameters. For example, in lungs affected by bronchiectasis the airway lumens fail to taper, whereas in healthy lungs the airway diameters become smaller with succeeding generations. Since the bronchial tree parallels the pulmonary artery and in healthy lungs an airway has approximately the same diameter as an accompanying artery, changes in the broncho-arterial ratio can be an indicator of the presence of bronchiectasis.
In order to diagnose these changes, high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) is used to acquire patient data. For example, with HRCT it is possible to evaluate airway/artery diameters since HRCT allows the acquisition of near-isotropic data. However, it is difficult for physicians to identify an airway/artery pair that contains an unusual broncho-arterial ratio without computer assistance. Further, the large number of slices per patient in an HRCT dataset makes it difficult for physicians to evaluate the extent of bronchiectasis.